I had never thought much about the mechanism behind corruption prior to my own. Had I guessed, I would've said it was simple. Phazon took the savage minds of its pirate hosts and forced them to do its bidding. And this much was true, to a point.
That was how it started. You were forced to do things against your will. Then, slowly you realize that with each deed comes a rush of pleasure; her reward for following commands. And for the pirates, this was enough. They were trained like animals, and in time following the will of Dark Samus became instinctive. They learned to love it, for obedience was addictive.
I was not immune. In the beginning, she forced me to ally myself with her pirates. As much as I wanted to kill the corrupted creatures beside me, she would not let me. Through me, she led them on multiple raids and excursions, and each time, she rewarded me. But it did not satisfy me. I would not be trained to be her willing servant. I fought her every step of the way, and so her will rarely slackened. I knew that it would be pleasant and easy to simply comply, but I would rather be a puppet than a coward.
There were rare moments between missions. Short, immeasurably wonderful breaks between my duties as a pirate commander where I was allowed to simply sit still, in my ship. It was naive to think I was actually in control in these moments. No, she and I simply agreed for a brief while that my body should rest. I was not in control, but she was not controlling me either, and these moments were the only thing keeping me sane.
She knew that, too. And it had become her goal in recent days to errode that sanity. These blessed moments were now sullied by her presence.
This day she had made me sit in the corner of the cockpit, while a spectre of her appeared in the pilot's seat. She took the place of the pilot while I resided in the passenger seat of my own ship. The subtlety wasn't lost on me.
She wheeled around to face me, clawed hand to her chin in a gesture of thought.
"Why do you still resist me, Rundas?" her voice slid from beneath her cyan mask in a familiar tune.
"I've beaten addiction before. You're no different."
She knew that, of course. She knew every excruciating detail of my life. Her insidious tendrils traced through every thought and memory in my head. Every embarrassing childhood blunder, every proud accomplishment, every moment of regretted change and unrequited feelings. Every waking minute since that fateful day I realized I could no longer power down my PED, I had felt her presence. I felt violated by exactly how much she knew about me, of all the things I had never trusted anyone enough to tell.
She was not here to learn. She asked only questions she already knew the answer to, because she knew me. She was here to taunt, to break me down. I knew that, but she was callous enough to believe it would make a difference.
"But I am, Rundas. You'll realize that soon enough, once you stop fighting. Everyone else already has."
"Samus hasn't."
I could swear I saw the faintest mark of a grimace across her spectre's visor when I said that name.
"She will soon enough."
I laughed. "You can barely handle me, no way in hell she'll give in. She'll be the one to kill you. You can count on it."
I suddenly felt a pressure around my throats. A tiny cry escaped with the last gasp of air. I couldn't see what was choking me- it was coming from inside me. I couldn't breathe. Sight began to fade, the pressure was unbearable. I felt like I was dying, but I knew she wouldn't let me. That's not what this was. The grip around me slackened, and I took in a single desperate breath before it tightened again. Again, and again. Tightening and slackening for what seemed like hours. She knew exactly how much air my body needed to keep from slipping into unconsciousness. Just enough to keep me conscious through the torture.
I fell to the ground gasping in pain as she finally released me.
"Arrogant as always, Rundas," she tsked. "If positive reinforcement doesn't work, then maybe negative will." She pondered, fingers picking at the edge of her visor.
"Sadistic witch," I choked out.
"Mmm," she mumbled. She looked out the canopy of my ship. "She'll be here soon."
With that, her ghost dissipated into nothingness. And strangely, I felt in control again. I wasn't sure at first, but when I pulled myself off the ground, it was by my own will. I could hardly believe it.
"Is this real?" my voice cracked. There was no answer. It had to be a trick- it had to. Maybe she had gotten distracted somehow.
I stepped out from my ship and stretched my long-inert limbs. It felt so indescribably freeing I thought I might collapse and break down right then and there. But in the distance I spotted a pirate warship. Shots began to rain down from its undercarriage onto the surface of Bryyo, and suddenly I remembered the last thing the wretched creature had told me.
Samus!
I sprung up and created an ice trail. I rushed to the pirate vessel as ATCs began to dispatch- she would be heavily outnumbered. I wanted to ambush them, take them all out in one fell swoop. The Temple had a shaft running below it. I sprung up a glacier from below and traced each pirate's movement, freezing them where they stood.
Just like old times. Now she owed me two times over. I emerged from the elevator shaft and nearly cried out with relief as I saw her standing before me. She was happy to see me, too.
But I quickly realized I was frozen. I couldn't move, I couldn't speak. I was a fool to think anything had changed. The demon seized control back just as quickly as she had given it.
"You want to say something to her?" she cackled in my head.
I did. There was so much I wanted to say. I wanted to say I was sorry. I wanted to say I didn't want to do this. I wanted to thank her for the advice she gave me throughout our years training together. I wanted to tell her she was the only person I had ever considered my equal. I wanted, I wanted...
The sinister voice started to chuckle. "Ah, I get it now. You have feelings for her, don't you."
"Shut up you miserable hag."
I said nothing, though I desperately wanted to. I could feel my body move against me once again as I threw the first strike. She easily dodged it, and looked at me with an expression I can only describe as a mixture of betrayal, anger, and confusion, before quickly retaliating. The fight had begun.
Dark Samus knew I couldn't beat her, because I knew it too. In all our spars in the past, I had never bested her. So what chance was there now? Phazon made little difference but to increase the scale of the fight.
This fight was not intended to kill Samus, but to break her down. Dark Samus was in her head too, and she knew how much it pained her. Even I knew, by the way she looked at me. This temple would be my tomb. I had expended my usefulness, and was now nothing more than a pawn. Samus was the real prize. I could tell her doppelganger would give anything to control her, and to do that she needed to break her. What better way than getting her to kill me?
"She feels the same, you know."
"Stop talking to me."
What was the point in taunting me now? I knew I was going to die, what use was there left in trying to torment me?
Was it a lie? Did it matter? Would it have changed anything, if I had known before? It's not like it ever could have worked out.
But something about the way her eyes looked beneath her visor told me all I needed. Even between barrage after barrage of hypermode shots shattering my attacks, she looked numb. The thrill and excitement of battle lost in her pain. I shouldn't have looked so closely, I felt as though I was breaking all over again.
Suddenly that wretched voice began laughing again. "How pathetic!" she cackled. The sadistic wench took a cold pleasure in our pain, and the more distraught we became, the louder she laughed.
She became truly high on it, and I felt her will slacken just that tiniest of bits. This was my chance! I stopped, and left myself open. I let Samus take the perfect shot that sent me flying backwards.
If I could do one last thing for her, it would be to spare her the final deed. I felt my head turn to and fro as the Phazon spectre fell confused, shocked that she had let herself slip up like this. The laughter stopped, and I could feel control starting to ebb away-but not this time. With a quick flick of my wrist I commanded four spears of ice in quick succession.
They impaled me one by one, and though I could feel my voice crying out in pain, I truly felt nothing. I was beyond pain now, beyond control and corruption. I was finally free as the last thing I saw was the blood-red sky of Bryyo, and the shocked face of the woman standing far below me.
Forgive me, Samus.